Traffic (Complete two-hundred pages) (Moving to Kindle Vella in 30 Days! )

9

LOCKED

TO MAKE THINGS EVEN Pat had a beer and gave Jack a hug but when politics about the president and golden showers commenced like every Saturday they had get-togethers, Jack said "how dirty" his eyeglasses were and decided to run upstairs to "find the cleaner."

Escaping into the wilderness of solitude and bliss that was the upstairs, he slipped into the shadows in the hallway and entered his bedroom. Searching for the glasses cleaner he checked the nightstand and wardrobe surfaces, his bathroom and then all the drawers of his bathroom and bedroom, until suddenly he came upon one drawer on his wife's side of the bed. He spotted something that made him freeze. A lock. A lock on her nightstand drawer he had never noticed. No way had it been there before his trip to Mexico City selling autonomous vehicle software to the Mexican National Guard. He tried to pull the drawer for he was sure the glasses cleaner would be inside but it didn't budge. He yanked at the lock but his wife's drawer would not budge.

Jack found himself standing defeated in the dark of his bedroom. What the hell was this secrecy? In his home? In his bedroom? There was not a single lock in the entire house.

Why here? Why all of a sudden? He stepped back and pondered whether to ask her now or after the party or not at all.

Did his wife have a right to privacy? Yes. But didn't his marriage deserve honesty?

Perhaps he was overreacting and could assume the drawer was for jewels and expensive accessories. But then he turned and saw her jewelry boxes by the mirror.

Could it be for documents? No, they had an entire file room across the hall in the office.

His heart skipped a beat. Maybe just a diary. But she should trust he would never look at that.

Never mind this senseless speculation. He went back downstairs to the party.